Wednesday, January 16, 2013

I'm Scary Too

Something happened during last night's 30-minute out and back run that seemed a perfect follow-up to Monday's post. It was after work, night had descended, and I was dressed to be seen--or so I thought.

My new reflective vest is way brighter than my old family heirloom. With 360-degree reflection and modern-age Scotch-Brite material, I looked like a damned Christmas tree that should have been taken down two weeks ago.

My route was another failed attempt at finding a road long enough (but not a busy thoroughfare) to suite my 30-minute runs. Alas, my chosen road ended with less than five minutes to go before I turned back. There was a park to my left, a busy road ahead, and short neighborhood road to my right.

I turned right and ran a couple more blocks until my watch timer went off. All the while I'd been conducting light-pole intervals (one on, four off), as my goal is to ratchet up my speed and endurance in these shorter running bursts.

Upon returning to my original road, there was a teen-aged boy riding his bike past the park as he texted. I hit the intersection just after he did and was running just behind him on the opposite side of the road.

All of a sudden, he looked up from his phone. "Oh, man, you scared the fudge out of me," he said with a startled urgency. Only, he didn't say "fudge."

I apologized, as he returned to his texting and pedaled on ahead of me. Running under the street lamps and wearing bright clothing, I never thought the kid didn't see me.

It just goes to show that sometimes people get scared of things that are stupid to be scared of.

4 comments:

Sun Runner said...

I can never ascend the basement stairs at my parents' without an overwhelming feeling that something that has been lurking in the dark is coming up behind me. I'm 39 years old and I still hustle up the stairs because the basement monster is going to get me.

Carolina John said...

Scaring teenagers is just good clean fun. Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Funk? Did he say funk?

Ironman By Thirty said...

Now you need to get one of these: http://ledlightvest.com/. We have one human one and one for the dog. We frighten the neighbors constantly.